Battle strategies

Hi folks!

Today, let's take a closer look at the core of Warlords - the battles, and how to win.

Winning battles gives you many essential items:

• units that fought gain XP (no matter if you won, or lost),
• gold
• weapons, armour and banners for heroes
• upgrade items
• regimental shards for hero level-ups

When your units take damage, it takes real-world time for them to recover. You can speed up that process by using diamonds, but these are rare, and the whole point of this blog is how to avoid spending outrageous amounts of real-world money, so let's look at alternatives.

Basically, we want to have a strategy for picking our battles in such a way that we can get a couple of victories in a row, before we have to let our troops rest.

Picking the right battle

Battle difficulty is marked with "skulls" on the world map. One-skull battles should be pretty easy to win without major casualties. Two-skull battles are somewhat harder, but well doable with the right strategy.

For three-skulls, you'll struggle to win at all, with major to almost complete casualties. Four-skull battles are really just there to tease you.

Crushing victory

There's a second aspect to picking your battles, besides difficulty - you'll get a limited amount of turns to win a "crushing" victory. This will give a substantial gold bonus (up to doubling your gold gain). And gold is always in short supply - higher-level upgrades are expensive, and while we could use diamonds to buy gold, the exchange rate is terrible, and, of course, diamonds are rare.

A good approach is to pick some easy one-skull battles in quick succession, and then going all-in for a two-skull one. This will leave your units depleted, but you can then put the game away, and pick up again with fresh units after a couple of hours.

Always try to get the "crushing" victory - you'll need the gold, and it makes the challenge more interesting as well.

The crucial first turn

The biggest advantage that you have on your side is the "first turn" - you get to deal damage first. And since most units deal damage according to their size, you can severely depleting the enemy forces in your first attack. One exception is the Guardian class, who can deal disproportionate damage with their "Retribution" perk.

Usually, you'll encounter two kinds of maps: Those where you want to attack in the first turn, and those where you want to evade.

It all comes down to range. Consider the Archer unit: she moves three tiles, has a range of three tiles, and can use the "Rain of Fire" perk to extend damage range to four tiles, so their range is six tiles, all in all. Next up are Cavalry (up to five tiles movement, one tile range) and Mages (three tiles move, two tiles range).

If you can deal some serious damage in the first turn, or have no way of a tactical retreat to get out of range, attacking forward is the only option. Otherwise, step back just out of enemy range, and do a full-impact attack next turn.

Examples

In the first map, all our units are in range of the enemy archers. This is a two-skull battle, the enemy heroes are mostly three-star, higher level ones, so we can't steamroll them.

But since there's nowhere for us to retreat, there's only one way, forward. Make use of the terrain (forest tiles reduce damage by 50%), and use the tactical capabilities of your units.

Most importantly, the Archers can use the "Rain of Fire" perk to deal damage and almost immobilise enemy units for three turns. In combination with the Guardian's blocking ability, we can focus down the front units, while delaying the ones further back.

Now, in the second map, we have a choke point with good defence in the centre, tempting to occupy directly, and then let them run into it.

Don't be fooled. The enemy has two ranged units, and especially the Mages are strong against our frontline units. They also have Pikes, who can remove our units from the forest defences and expose them before attacking. Lastly, the forest is lined by a ridge, which gives enemies attacking downhill a 50% attack bonus. 

A better strategy is to just move our archers one tile back, and let the enemy move first. This should at least bring their Mages into our range the next turn, allowing our Archers to take them out. We can then push into the forest ourselves, and pick up the enemies at the choke point.

We still won't get through without some damage, but we've got three ranged units, two Archers and the Mages, which are going to deal devastating damage, forest or not. The Guardians have high health, probably our Cavalry will take a decent beating, though.

Reserves

Which brings us to the last point for today - reserves. In the second scenario, I'd probably not be using the Cavalry in the next battle, since they're understrength. But I have a strong Pike unit in reserve, as well as a somewhat weaker second Cavalry unit.

So even after a damaging battle, I can still fight another full one (5v5 or 5v7) by using my reserves. Usually, I play three to five battles in a round, exhausting my units in the last one, then put the game aside and come back to it later, when they've recovered.







 

Warlords upgrade system

Hi folks!

After we've got an overview of the different unit types last time, let's take a closer look at the upgrade system today.

Battalion upgrades

In order to upgrade the battalions, we need the respective upgrade items, and cash. The items come from crates, the marketplace and, mostly, winning battles.

Levelling up the battalion via XP gained from battles opens up new upgrade paths.

There are three stats that can be upgraded:

• HP - amount of damage each unit can take before they are disabled
• Damage - amount of damage each unit dishes out
• number of soldiers in the battalion

Each upgrade level has four items, and once all four are purchased, you get a bonus, which is often considerable.

Upgrades cost cash, which is non-purchasable with real-world money, but has to be won in battles.

Upgrades take a while to complete - the higher the level, the longer the wait. Given that there are five classes, there's heaps of upgrading to do, and waits can be skipped using the secondary "diamonds" currency.

Avoiding spending real money on those (you won't really get many, unless you put some serious cash into them) is a matter of scheduling. Quickly check occasionally if an upgrade has finished, and start another one, even if you don't plan to battle. Only takes a second, and you'll be constantly upgrading, improving your units.

Upgrade priority

Upgrades are pretty balanced - you'll need all three (health, damage and soldier count). Personally, I put a slight priority on soldier count, but they're almost equally important.

A bigger factor is the bonus set. They're equal across units in terms of soldier count, but e.g. Guardians get better bonus HP, Archers get high damage output etc. - so keep the roles in mind, and go with your favourite units.

Hero upgrades

A secondary upgrade system is the hero level, counted in "stars". You collect "shards", via the premium crate, special battles or rare loot. Levelling up the hero increases offence/defence capabilities massively, and allows for better gear.

Gear levels follow the usual pattern (gray - common, green - uncommon, blue - rare, purple - epic, orange - legendary). Someone has clearly been playing "Need For Speed" :).

There are three types of gear:

• Weapons - these can have critical damage or magical damage, which can easily double a hit
• Armour - increases physical and magical resistance. I usually go with physical primarily, since mages are fairly easy to snipe, and they're the only unit dealing magical damage.
• Banner - increases offence, which is weighed against the enemy's defence stat, to determine how much damage is caused, with other factors. Can also give critical hit chance.

So higher level, higher gear. Gears themselves can be upgraded for gold - higher level gear can be upgraded higher as well.

Getting shards

You get shards from the premium chest, which shows up every two days for free. You can buy them for diamonds, which is a decent investment, since you'll get some other stuff (upgrades, gear) as well, but it's a game of chance.

You get shards from the battles in the "Brigand Island" - three shards for every level you win. I recommend saving these up for when you unlock the secondary units, and you're in the situation of having to quickly level up, say, another archer unit. Since you can chose which unit gets the shards, they come in rather handy.

You can get shards from the loot wagon in special "Brigand" battles - make sure to have the unit you want shards for the most collect the wagon. That can be a tactical challenge by itself occasionally, since you have to collect it before you kill the last enemy unit.

Very rarely, you get shards in regular battles. Lastly, you can buy them for diamonds in the marketplace - that's probably the best investment for your diamonds, since you can control what you want to buy. Look out for more than one on offer, since they're discounted.

That's it for today. Next time, we'll have a look at battle strategies.

Warlords - units

Hi folks!

Let's take a bit of a closer look at the unit classes in Warlords, after the general free-to-play overview the other day. I quite enjoy turn-based games, so I'm having some fun with this one.

Guardians

Slow, close combat class. High health and armour ratings. They get a damage bonus against Pikes and Archers. Move three fields, one field range. Their passive perk prevents any adjacent enemy unit from moving more than one field past them. The active perk is a "last stand" attack, that deals damage according to damage taken so far by the Guardians.

These folks are frontline fighters. Get them in range quickly, to create choke points, allowing your ranged units to rain down hell on the enemy. Weak against Cavalry and Mages. Good to position in a forest (-50% damage taken), or town (30% damage healed per round). 

In a desperate battle, try to get them into a town, especially if both enemy positional perks (Cavalry push and Pikes seize position) are exhausted. The town will continuously heal the Guardians, and you can deal huge damage once when they're low on health. This way, you can hold out against, and wear down a much larger enemy force, and eventually win, even with just this one unit.

When fighting Guardians, always make sure to kill them entirely in one turn, or you'll get the "last stand" damage next round, which is hugely annoying. Best way to deal with them is to pry them into the open via Cavalry or Pikes, and then hit them with everything else.

Archers

My favourite unit. They have the longest range in the game - three fields movement, three fields ranged attack, plus one field on the area-of-effect "rain of fire" perk. This means they can usually attack across almost the whole battlefield in the first, crucial turn. Their health and armour is decent, direct damage is huge, and they get the class bonus against the pesky Mages.

Generally, try to position them in a defended (forest) or high-ground (+50% damage output) position, such that they can't be reached by enemy close range units. Guardians are their natural pair, since they prevent breakthroughs with their passive perk.

The Archers' active perk allows to create a three-by-three area of fire for three turns, which deals 25% of base damage each turn, and slows all enemy units to one field per turn. Against lower-class enemies, this can wipe out their entire army in one turn, and with high enough archer damage, it even hits stronger ones pretty badly.

More importantly, you can effectively block off certain areas of the battlefield, again creating chokepoints, or allowing enemies to be dealt with piecemeal.

My usual tactics is to position them in a safe (unreachable or defended) location in the first attacking turn, and take out the enemy Archers, or Mages, if they're unusually strong. Guardians, Pikes and Cavalry hold the line, and in the subsequent turns, the Archers obliterate one enemy after the other.

Be careful if they get caught at close range, as they'll no longer be able to use ranged attacks, unless you can move them away.

Archers are definitely worth having a good second unit of, although it took me bloody ages to get there (and then I got two subsequently).

Pikes

Pikes are decent front-line fighters, with the same range/movement as Guardians. They get a class bonus against Cavalry, and a defence & damage bonus when operating in closed ranks (adjacent to friendly units).

Their most powerful weapon is their active perk, "seize position". This one-off attack allows them to swap positions with an enemy unit before attacking. This is hugely annoying, when employed against you - have a cavalry unit on a forested hilltop, giving them +50% on damage and defence? Pikes go to into the swamp next to it (+50% damage taken), swap out with your cavalry, and you're hit with double damage + class bonus - and they sit in your nice, defensible spot for the next turn. Urgh.

Of course, you can use it the same way yourself, prying enemy units out of their frontline positions, shoving them into range of your own line (or into a swamp) and having them obliterated.

Cavalry

Cavalry units are the fastest movers - they have a natural move range of four fields, and their passive perk allows them to move an additional field at the cost of 50% damage reduction that turn. Cavalry gets a class bonus against Guardians. Their active perk is somewhat similar to the Pikes', but less useful - where Pikes can swap positions pre-attack, Cavalry can push an enemy unit out of their position post-attack, but only if the field to push into is unoccupied.

Cavalry is very useful at pushing through enemy lines early on, and getting a first strike against soft targets. The downside is that they'll be pretty much unsupported the next turn, and have the rest of the enemy line crush them, so be careful with those rushes.

I usually use them to either get a good shot at Archers or Mages, if they're in reach, or to defend in front of my own Archers, allowing them to get as close as possible to the enemy lines, and take a shot at their ranged units.

Mages

Lastly, we have spellcasters. They naturally are the weakest in close quarters combat, and their range of only two fields means they've got to get dangerously close to enemy positions to take a shot. This often means holding them back in the first attack, if you can't position them in a way that they won't be wiped out the next.

Their natural friends are the Guardians, since their battlefield control allows them closer to enemy positions. But their main weapon is their active perk: An area-of-effect spell with a range of two fields around their current position. It charges up at 25% damage per turn, so usually not something you want to use in the first attack anyway - but once it's ready, powerful Mages can wipe out most parts of the enemy army in one go, or at least do some serious damage.

Which is why I usually target enemy Mages early on.


That's it for the unit overview. Next time, we'll have a look at the upgrade system, and some more strategies of how to have fun without spending much real-world money.